Tuning your Instrument

There are three ways to tune your cello (or bass) Note: if the cello string is less than 1 note off pitch, use the fine tuners. If more than 1 note use the pegs (the pegs turn upward to raise the pitch of the note, downward to lower the note).

1. The first is to the piano. The first chart below illustrates how to tune the cello using the piano.

The second chart illustrates tuning the bass with the piano (either electric or upright, it is the same).

2. The second way is with a tuner that pics up the sound of your instrument and displays the note played. There are both tuners you can buy and tuner apps available for your phone/tablet. My favorite tuner is called Cleartune and is available for both IOS and Android. Notice after you purchase the app you will need to change Temperament to Violin Family. I also like to turn on Needle Damping. The rest of the Presets should look as follows:

3. The third way is to use what is called a vibration tuner--i.e. you clip the tuner to the instrument and it senses the pitch via the vibration the string makes. I really like this kind of tuner because you can tune your instrument in a noisy environment. For cello I recommend are the NS Micro chromatic Tuner (make sure you get the clip-on version) or the Snark Chromatic tuner, and for bass players I recommend the Meisel clip on digital tuner as it has a special bass tuning setting.